Firefighters battling the Eightmile Fire were up against harsh terrain and unfavorable weather conditions during the weekend as a cold front started moving over the area.

Wind coming from the west caused the fire to grow to the north Saturday, but officials at Saturday's public information meeting at Cañon City High School said they didn't expect the storm to grow to the west, toward Cañon City, any.

Compared to 2013's Royal Gorge Fire, vegetation is wetter, which can significantly impact fire behavior, according to John Peterson, public information officer with the Type 2 Incident Management Team.

About 90 percent of big fires happen in the 90th percentile of the energy release component of the national fire danger rating system, but this one is below that percentile, he said.

The ERC measures how hot a fire can burn with the available fuel. The heat of the fire depends on the moisture of the fuel.

The vegetation, while denser that what was being burned at the Royal Gorge Fire, isn't as dry as it was this time last year, but with a change of the weather, fire behavior can alter quickly.

"High wind sucks the moisture out," Peterson said.

As winds grow, it dries out the grass and trees, making them more susceptible to fire. He added that this spring has been unusually windy.

The area can expect the same kind of windy, dry conditions until the middle of July, Peterson said. That's when wetter weather is typically expected.

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Kevin Simpson, with the Colorado Springs Fire Department, said conditions at the fire were hot, windy and dry.

"(The terrain) looked very steep," Simpson said. He spent eight hours on structure protection Saturday, evaluating neighborhoods near the fire. So far, no structures are being threatened by the blaze.

Rugged terrain has played a major role in the growth of the fire since the beginning, according to Jackie Parks, Bureau Land Management information officer for the Eightmile Fire. The No. 1 priority is keeping firefighters safe in that terrain, she said.

It was a point echoed by Incident Commander Dan Dallas on Saturday night at the public information meeting at CCHS. He added that he felt good about the resources being used on the fire.